Vatican I - Rome

Piazza di San Pietro

St. Peter's square - Piazza di San Pietro

In front of St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican City there is St. Peter's square. It was designed by great Bernini. St. Peter's square is surrounded by colonnades composed of 284 Doric columns lined up in four rows. It is interesting that in the middle of the square there are two places where you can see all the colonnades as they are all in one row!

These points are located between the obelisk and fountain, and they are marked with white marble plates on which is an inscription 'Centro del Collonato. At the center of the square there is an Egyptian obelisk which dates back to the 13th century BC! Emperor Caligula brought it in the first century and it stands to this  current location from 16th century during the pontificate of Pope Sixtus V.

Vatican Museums - Musei Vaticani
I'm sorry that I didn't manage to visit the Vatican Museums this time, although I've already passed through them twice. But it was very crowded and great heat above all. I know the content but it's nice to get back and see again all that treasures because the Vatican Museums are among the most valuable museums of the world, and consists of six parts: the Egyptian Museum, Etruscan Museum, the Sistine Chapel, Raphael break, the Pinacoteca and the Ethnological Museum.

Castel Sant' Angelo

 Hadrian's Mausoleum  - Castel Sant'Angelo 

It was initially commissioned by the Roman Emperor Hadrian as a mausoleum for himself and his family. The building was later used by the popes as a fortress and castle, and the Papal state also used Sant'Angelo as a prison: Giordano Bruno, for example, was imprisoned there for six years. Now it's a museum. The Castel was once the tallest building in Rome.